Key Takeaways
- Journal prompts can help start your writing, especially if you’ve never tried journaling or are experiencing writer’s block.
- Be honest and write from the heart to get the most out of journaling.
- Write as much or as little as you like, and even use drawings or poetry to express yourself.
A journal can be a trusted companion that helps you reflect on your thoughts, feelings, actions, decisions, and relationships. Research shows that journaling is linked to better planning, lower stress, and better physical and mental health.
Whether you write in your journal regularly or you’re just getting started, you might sometimes find yourself staring at a blank page and wondering what to write. If you’re at a loss for words, a journal prompt can come to the rescue.
Journal prompts are suggestions, ideas, or questions that can help guide and inspire your journal entries, says Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University.
“Prompts are typically themes to reflect on or questions that are meant to motivate you to think deeper about something,” Dr. Romanoff adds.
In this article, we suggest some journal prompts that can spark your creativity. We also ask the expert for some strategies that can help you create your own journal prompts.
Benefits of Using Journal Prompts
Prompted journaling, also known as guided journaling, offers several benefits:
- Starting point: If you’ve never tried journaling before or if you’re experiencing writer’s block, journal prompts can help you get started.
- Direction: Prompts can provide direction to your writing, says Dr. Romanoff. By focusing on a specific topic or question, you can explore your thoughts and feelings around it.
- Structure: Sometimes, you might prefer to write down your thoughts freely as they occur. However, there may be times when you want to organize your thoughts more coherently. Journal prompts can provide the structure you need to organize your thoughts.
- Creativity: Using different journal prompts can introduce variety to your journaling experience. It can encourage you to think more creatively and approach things from different angles.
- Insight: Journal prompts can provide topics or themes that help you explore fresh perspectives and new dimensions of yourself, says Dr. Romanoff. This process can help you discover personal insights and promote greater self-awareness.
- Consistency: Having a prompt to guide each journaling session can encourage you to maintain a regular journaling practice. The prompts can make journaling feel like a purposeful and engaging activity, which may help you be more consistent with it.
How to Use Journal Prompts
These are some strategies that can help you use journal prompts:
- Find prompts that inspire you: Dr. Romanoff suggests making a list of prompts that you find inspiring or motivating—you can come up with your own, buy a journal with prompts, or look online for examples.
- Decide your frequency: It can be helpful to set a frequency for journaling, such as daily, weekly, monthly or at any other interval that works for you. You can use prompts every time you journal or just when you’re feeling stagnant and craving inspiration or motivation for your journaling session, says Dr. Romanoff.
- Keep an open mind: Approach prompted journaling with an open mind. Reflect on the prompt and explore where it takes you. You can write as much or as little as you like.
- Get creative: Don’t be afraid to get creative with your responses or limit yourself only to words. You can even pen down your thoughts and feelings in the form of drawings or poetry, if you prefer.
- Be honest and authentic: Honesty is key to getting the most out of journaling. Write from the heart and don’t be afraid to express your true feelings, even if they are complex or challenging.
- Reflect on your responses: After you’ve written your responses, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve written. Consider how your thoughts and emotions have evolved over the course of writing them down.
Journal Prompts You Can Try
These are some journal prompts that can help you get started.
Self-Discovery Prompts
Self-discovery prompts can help you self-reflect and get to know yourself better. Greater self-awareness is linked to improved emotional intelligence.
These are some journal prompts that can enable self-discovery:
- First, list five words that best describe you. Then, think about which five words you would like to describe yourself.
- Complete this sentence: “My life would be incomplete without….”
- Reflect on a phrase, quote, or mantra that resonates with you. Explain why it’s significant to you.
- Make a list of the things in your life that you’re most grateful for.
- Explain what you do best.
- Reflect on the qualities that you value most in others.
- Share three things that made you smile today.
- List your best and worst habits.
- Write down three life lessons you’ve learned.
- Explain what love means to you.
- Describe the values that are most important to you and consider whether your actions align with them.
- Think about what you would do with your life if you had unlimited resources and explain why.
- Describe what is stressing you out and how you’re coping with it.
- Write about your biggest regret and what you would do differently in hindsight.
- Identify and label the fears and insecurities that are holding you back right now.
Personal Growth Prompts
These are some journal prompts that can encourage personal growth:
- What are three short-term goals you would like to achieve within the next three months?
- What are three long-term goals you would like to achieve within the next five years?
- Which skill would you like to cultivate in yourself?
- Which qualities do you admire most in others that you would like to develop in yourself?
- Which areas of your life would benefit from more self-discipline?
- What is your worst habit and how would you change it?
- What’s something new you would like to try?
- What habit do you want to add to your daily routine?
- What would you like to contribute to your community?
- What is the biggest challenge you’re dealing with right now?
- What is the biggest failure you’ve ever faced and what have you learned from it?
- How would you like to be remembered by others?
- How can you better support your loved ones?
- What boundaries would you like to set in your relationships to protect yourself?
Mindfulness Prompts
Mindfulness prompts can help you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, senses, and surroundings. Being more mindful can help you be more intentional and purposeful in the way you live your life.
These are some journal prompts that can support greater mindfulness:
- Describe a meal you ate today. What colors, textures, tastes, and feelings did you experience?
- Pick an everyday object from your surroundings, like a plant or a pencil. Write a detailed description of it as if you’ve never seen it before.
- Focus on a sound in the background, such as the ticking of a clock or the rustling of the breeze. Describe the sound and its impact on you.
- Close your eyes for a minute and pay attention to your breath. When you open your eyes, write down what it felt like.
- Describe your ideal day from morning to night. What activities, people, and experiences would be part of it?
- Reflect on your thoughts without judgment. Identify and describe any feelings you’re experiencing in the present moment.
- Write about a recent interaction with someone. What were their words, expressions, and gestures? How did you feel during the interaction?
- Think back to a moment of happiness you experienced recently. Relive the sensations, thoughts, and emotions associated with it.
- Think about the place where you feel most at peace. What makes it special to you?
- Recall a time when you were worrying about something in the future. How did it affect your present moment and what would you have done differently?
Creativity Prompts
These are some journal prompts that can spark creativity:
- Write a letter to your favorite fictional character, describing your life to them.
- Make a list of questions you would like to ask a future version of yourself.
- Think about your favorite word or phrase. Explain why you love it.
- Choose a random object from your surroundings. What qualities do you have in common with it?
- Make a list of ten unusual ways to use a common household item. Get creative and think outside the box.
- Write a conversation between two inanimate objects, giving them personalities and voices.
- Invent a gadget that would make your life more efficient or interesting.
- Choose a word from a foreign language that doesn’t have a direct English translation. Describe the last time you encountered or experienced it.
- Imagine you get the chance to be any animal for a day. Which animal would you pick and what would you do?
- Invent a new holiday and outline the traditions, celebrations, and rituals associated with it, based on your values.
- If you have a time machine and you can go anywhere in the past or future, where would you go and what would you do there?
How Do You Come Up With a Journal Prompt?
These are some strategies that can help you come up with your own journal prompts:
- Decide your goals: First, consider what your goal of journaling is and then work backwards to find ways to achieve that goal, says Dr. Romanoff. For instance, she says gratitude, relationships, learning, self-growth, or creativity are goals that you might want to pursue.
- Find prompts that align with your goals: Write down a few prompts that resonate with you and align with your current goals, interests, or areas of focus. You can add more or tweak them as you go along.
- Mix and match different prompts: Feel free to mix and match prompts from different sources or create your own variations. Experiment with different types of prompts to keep your journaling practice engaging and varied.
- Build on existing prompts: If a prompt leads you to new insights or questions, consider exploring those ideas in subsequent journal entries. You can use your initial response as a springboard for deeper exploration.
Conclusion
Journaling can be a form of self-care, a way to connect with yourself, or a creative exercise.
If you enjoy journaling, having prompts can help guide your thoughts and focus your attention in a specific direction. Having a new journal prompt to work on every time you’re in the mood to journal can be exciting, comforting, and even a little scary. Just think of each prompt as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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